Dating A Mob Boss (The Dating Series Book 2)

by Love, B. T.

  “Nah, this is different. There’s somethin’ up with him.”

  I twisted my lips in thought. “Well what are you gonna do?”

  “Hope for the best, I guess.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Hope that he isn’t working for the feds.”

  I laid my head down and hugged against him. “What would I do if something happened to you? I don’t even want to think about that.”

  “You wouldn’t have to worry about a thing,” he said while running his hand over the top of my hair. “You’ll be well taken care of.”

  “I don’t care about that. What would I do without you?”

  “I doubt you’d be without me for long. Believe me, I keep myself very well protected. If I got caught for something they wouldn’t have enough to put me away for more than a few years I’m sure.”

  “More than a few days without you is hard.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now. Let’s just enjoy what we have in this moment.”

  I held onto him tightly, my mind racing with images of him being either killed or arrested. This man who I basically loathed when I first met him was now my entire world. And what happens when your world is taken away? You cease to exist.

  Eleven

  The rain poured down outside and I watched the heavy drops pound the pavement. I saw Trent exit his house wearing a trench coat, his head ducked low as the rain pelted his hair. Mikey opened the door for him and Trent got in next to me. “Hey baby,” he said with a smile as he leaned over and gave me a kiss.

  “Hi,” I smiled back. “What’s all this about? You’ve never sent Mikey to pick me up like this.”

  “It’s kind of a surprise.”

  “Ooh, a surprise! How fun!”

  Mikey got in the front seat and shut the door. “You sure you want her in on this?” he asked as he pulled the car away from the curb.

  “Hey, my woman wants to be a part of the business. My woman always gets what she wants; you know that.”

  “It’s business related?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  We drove in the back of the black Bentley, otherwise known as Trent’s business car, to the other side of the city. Mikey stayed quiet until we pulled down an alleyway that was darkened even more so by the gloomy weather. “Here we are.”

  At the end of the alley was another black car with its headlights off. “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “Stevie,” Trent answered. He put his hand on the door handle. “Now I want you to stay here and just watch, understand?”

  “What are you gonna do?”

  “Look over some merchandise he’s pushing for me.”

  “But aren’t you afraid he’s working for the feds?”

  “Not so much anymore. I have some guys watching him and they said they haven’t seen any odd behavior from him. I figured out another reason he might be actin’ so nervous though. I need to put my suspicions to rest ‘cause I’ve got close to a million dollars in the back of his trunk over there.”

  “You have a million dollars in his trunk!”

  “In cocaine, yeah.”

  I leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Be careful.”

  “Of course. I’ve got those beautiful lips I have to get back to.” He winked and got out, shutting the door behind him with a bang.

  “Trent loves the hell outta ya,” Mikey said from the front seat. “I know that because he’s bringing ya along in all this. The man’s crazy. And if anything happens of course I have to make sure you’re safe.”

  I smiled and watched Trent through the tinted windows. He walked so strong and tall, his confidence oozing from every pore. Unlike when we picked him up and he dodged the rain minutes before, he now was walking through the heavy drops as if they weren’t there. I realized he had an image he had to uphold.

  “Do you trust Stevie?” I asked.

  “I trust that douchebag about as far as I can throw him, which isn’t very far because he weighs about a thousand pounds.”

  “And what about Trent?”

  “Trent has a soft spot that between you and me will get him in trouble someday.”

  “Trent believes his soft spot is only in his personal life,” I chuckled. “Either way, that soft spot is what made me fall in love with him.”

  I saw Stevie step out of the back of the car and shake hands with Trent. It was freezing outside and I could clearly see that he was sweating, just as he did when I waited on him in the restaurant.

  They went around to the trunk and Stevie opened it, stepping back for Trent to see. I could see the tightly-bound bags of cocaine piled high in the space, packed into every inch. “Wow, is that the stuff?” I said in awe.

  “That’s the stuff.”

  Trent held a straight face as he reached into the inside of his trench coat and pulled out a cigar. After lighting it he stuck it in his mouth and crossed his arms as Stevie went on and on about something. Trent shook his head, Stevie held his hands out to the product, Trent puffed on his cigar . . . It was mesmerizing to watch. After a couple more minutes of Stevie babbling on, Trent reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a knife.

  “What’s he doing?” I asked in a panic, wondering if I was about to see some sort of fight ensue.

  “Relax. He’s testin’ the product.”

  “Testing the product? He never told me he did any of the drugs.”

  “He doesn’t. But Stevie’s been acting strange so he figured he would try it out this time.”

  I watched as Trent stuck his knife into one of the packages and made a small slit. Stevie took out a handkerchief and wiped away the rain from his head as Trent took his cigar out of his mouth and brought the tip of the blade to his nose. After a sharp inhale he closed his knife, put it in his pocket, and stared down at the ground.

  “What’s he doing now?”

  “Will ya just watch already? Jesus.”

  Trent brought the cigar back to his lips as Stevie started in again, pointing to the trunk. After another minute Trent finally looked up and said a few words that Stevie responded quickly to.

  “I think Trent’s suspicions were right,” Mikey said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll let him tell you.”

  Trent dropped his cigar on the ground and stepped on it, drowning it in a puddle. His hands found his coat pockets as he left Stevie and came back to the car, getting back inside. “Let’s go,” he calmly ordered Mikey. Mikey complied immediately and backed out of the alley.

  “What happened?” I asked impatiently.

  “I figured out why Stevie’s been acting so strangely. The product isn’t as pure as he’s been letting on.”

  “You can tell?”

  “Yes, I can tell. And I told him I’m through.”

  “You’re not doing business with him anymore?”

  “No.”

  “But won’t losing him hurt your business?”

  “Nah. I have other guys I deal in cocaine with. And besides, I can’t be held responsible for people buying stuff that isn’t as pure as they’re being told it is. That’s what will hurt my business.” He leaned forward and took his drenched coat off, throwing it over the headrest of the front passenger’s seat. “So did you like being involved in that?”

  “Yeah, I mean, from what I could see.”

  He smiled and put his hand on my knee. “You’re not happy.”

  “Yes I am. I’m just kind of nervous now, actually. What if Stevie blames me for all this?”

  “Don’t worry about that. He can think whatever he wants but he knows when it comes down to it he better not mess with me. I even told him if anything bad comes from our business deal falling through that my grandfather would take care of him as well. There might be people who aren’t afraid of me but my grandfather is a whole other story.”

  I leaned against him and laced my arm in his. “I didn’t know you sampled your own product.”

  “You have to if you want to know it’s good.�
�� He leaned closer and planted a kiss on my hair. “Hey, let’s go somewhere nice.”

  “Where?” I said, looking up at him with a grin.

  “Wherever you want.”

  “Hmm. How about we go see a movie?”

  “A movie? I haven’t seen a movie at the theater in years.”

  “Then we should do it!”

  Mikey scoffed. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a death sentence or anything.”

  “No kidding,” Trent laughed.

  I didn’t get the joke. “What do you mean?”

  “That’s the perfect place for someone to knock Trent off at. It’d be like Abraham Lincoln all over again.”

  “That’s horrible!” I said as I let go of Trent’s arm and leaned back into my seat. “I don’t want to even joke about that.”

  “Oh, don’t worry baby. That won’t happen.”

  “You’re right, because we’re not going to the movies. I won’t be able to relax the whole time we’re there, just thinking about that as a possibility.”

  Trent smiled. “Then where do you want to go?”

  Just as the words left his lips we passed a large outdoor ice-skating rink filled with happy people. “There!” I pointed excitedly at the venue. “And it’s in broad daylight, too.”

  Trent looked out the window. “Awe, jeez. And of course I love you too much to tell you no.”

  “I know,” I said pleasantly. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.”

  * * *

  Trent held my hand as we made our way onto the ice. “I’m gonna look like a fool in front of you,” he said while trying to steady himself.

  “You can never look like a fool to me.”

  “Well, just wait until we start going a little faster than this.”

  I grabbed tightly onto his arm. “I’m scared!” I admitted with a childish grin.

  “Just keep movin’,” he said with a chuckle as he tried to steady our weight. “Man, I haven’t done this since I was a kid.”

  “Well you’re doing pretty good.”

  A teenage boy skated past us a little closer than we were prepared for. I squealed and grabbed onto Trent and he wobbled, trying his best to keep us up. “Whoa, baby. We almost fell there!”

  “I’m sorry! Maybe this was a bad idea.”

  “No no,” he smiled. “I think we just need to get over our fear of falling is all. Let’s just go faster and get over that fear. How does that sound?”

  “Horrible.”

  “No it doesn’t,” he chuckled. “Come on.”

  I released my hold on him and found his hand once again. “Ok, let’s try it your way.”

  One foot at a time we tried to skate over the ice as people whirled by us. At first it was going okay, but after a few more unruly movements our imbalance caught up to us. “Oh crap!” Trent said as he grabbed onto me, taking me down to the hard ice with him. We both cracked up at how sorry we must have looked. “I’m so sorry baby,” he chuckled as he got up and helped me to my feet.

  I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face against his cold trench coat. “It’s okay,” I laughed. “Maybe this just isn’t our thing.”

  “Yeah, I agree. But that’s okay, ‘cause there are so many more things we do together that we are good at.”

  “Like shooting guns.”

  He smiled down at me. “Yeah. Like shooting guns.”

  Twelve

  I stared at Stevie from the kitchen. “How dare he show up here.”

  Natalie crossed her arms and stood next to me, watching him with just as much hatred as I was. “I can’t stand that guy. Someone needs to teach him a lesson.”

  “Trent let him off easy, for some reason. I have the feeling he’s just trying to impress me still, even though we’ve been together for a while now.”

  “Impress you? How?”

  “By toning it down a bit and not taking care of him in the usual way I guess.”

  She looked over at me and frowned. “But look what he did to Manny. He wasn’t afraid to show ya his angry side then.”

  “That was different. Manny tried to, you know, take advantage of me and stuff. Stevie’s never tried anything like that, thank goodness.”

  She grimaced at the thought. “Well, ya should have seen my dad’s face when Trent told him what Manny did to ya. He thought Trent was gonna blame him or something.”

  “No, Trent wouldn’t do that. He knows your dad can’t help what his employees do.”

  “I bet you’re glad my dad fired him, huh?”

  “Definitely.”

  We watched Stevie wipe his cloth napkin across his forehead. “That guy’s gonna have a heart attack,” she said, dropping her arms and grabbing her waitressing apron out from beneath the counter. “He better not die in our restaurant or I’ll be pissed.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed. “But if he does you can fill in a huge tip for yourself on his tag.”

  “Hey, that’s a good idea!” She nudged my arm playfully. “So what are ya gonna do about him? He’s your table.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, “I know. I guess I’ll just have to play it by ear and see what comes out of my mouth.”

  “Well, good luck.”

  I smiled and took off toward his table, pulling out my pen to take his order. “Hello Stevie. What can I get for you today?”

  He looked up from his menu. “Oh, it’s you. I don’t want you to serve me tonight.”

  My arms crossed defensively in front of me. “And why is that?”

  “Because of what you’ve done.”

  “And what is that exactly?”

  “You’ve hurt my business.”

  “Hurt your business? How did I hurt your business?”

  “You’ve got Trent thinkin’ with his little head instead of his big one. The man’s makin’ bad business decisions.”

  The man infuriated me. “Listen, you, you Fat Tony wannabe,” I growled as I leaned down into his face. “You lost your business with Trent because you tried bringing in product that wasn’t as pure as you said it was.”

  His face hardened. “Trent told you about that?”

  “Yes, he did. I just so happened to be there when your little business meeting went South.”

  “Trent Falco?” he laughed in disbelief. “Bringing a broad like you to a business meeting with a million dollars’ worth of cocaine at stake? I doubt that sweetheart.”

  “Well you better believe that I was there. But I really don’t care what you think because all I see when I look at you is a fat sweaty loser who tried to screw my man over.”

  He sucked his teeth; my words hit a nerve. “You’re a woman; you have no clue how this business works. I was merely trying to cut cost.”

  “Yeah, by cutting quality.” My eyes softened as I listened to what I was saying. There I was, defending the purity of cocaine. I couldn’t believe that I had turned into someone who would do that. I backed off of Stevie and cleared my throat, changing my tone to a gentler one. “Listen Stevie, you know Trent very well; you’ve been in business with him for years.”

  “Yes I have.”

  “And what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen him do to someone who crosses him?”

  He sat back in his chair and pondered the question. “You mean, that he did personally or had someone else do for him?”

  “Both.”

  “Well, a few years back he had John cut off the finger of someone who stole from him.”

  I closed my eyes for a second from the horrific picture that put in my head. “Okay, and what have you seen him do personally?”

  “Not much. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. I mean, the man does like to fight. I saw him knock a guy out with one punch to the face.”

  “And why do you think he didn’t do that to you?”

  “Because,” he shrugged, “we’ve known each other a long time.”

  “And do you really think that matters to him?”

  “Sure it does, or else I would’ve seen the repercussions by
now.”

  “Did you ever think that it’s because of me that you haven’t been beaten senseless?”

  His face morphed into a look of concern. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because Trent doesn’t like me to see his business side. I was with him that day in the alley, watching from the car. I’m sure he wanted to save me from seeing some violence on that occasion.”

  The sweat was beading up on his forehead; he quickly wiped it away with his napkin. “Well, I uh, I guess that’s a possibility.”

  “Yeah, it’s a major possibility. So maybe now you can treat me with a little more respect. ‘Cause you know what? I might just be your lifeline.”

  His eyes scanned my face while he entertained a thought in that fat head of his. After a few moments passed he nodded and opened his menu, looking down at the fancy-scripted words. “I’ll have the Shrimp Fettucine.”

  * * *

  “Come to the club.” Trent sounded mad.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Now, Amber.”

  He was mad. “Oh, okay. I’ll get a cab right now.” He hung up without saying goodbye.

  I got dressed and took a cab down to the club. It was a Wednesday night and it wasn’t packed like it was on the weekends. The weeknight crowd usually consisted of people out for dinner and relaxed dancing, much different from the rave that took place once the work week was finished.

  I was met by the topless girl Trent had previously fired, but this time she had on a tight sequined shirt. It didn’t really matter, though, because I still imagined her enormous naked breasts exactly as I knew they were sitting beneath the fabric. “Hello Ms. Johnsom. Trent said to send you up to his office.”

  “Okay, thank you.” I walked across the half-empty dance floor and went up the dark stairs in the corner. After tapping on the door I heard heavy footsteps coming over.

  Trent opened the door dressed in a dark blue expensive-looking suit. He looked great. Well, everything but his face did. His expression was quite dark. “Get your ass in here,” he huffed as he stood back for me to enter.

  I walked past him and stood by the pool table. “What’s wrong?”